by Eric Asher
“Not Eldritch,” Aideen whispered. “Utukku.”
“What?”
“There are wars older than you can know. Times when the Fae and the Utukku clashed. Their bones can hold magic almost as well as magrasnetto. I assume I don’t need to tell you how we know that.”
I stared at the coffin in horror. “That’s the soul of an Utukku trapped inside that mirror?”
“Yes.” There was pain in that single word, as if it was a truth Aideen had suspected for many years, but had never confirmed.
“Then we free it,” I said. “We can’t leave them imprisoned like that.”
“Damian,” Foster said. His words were still slow, and I had little doubt it was from the shock of seeing Cara. “That spirit has been imprisoned for hundreds of millennia. It can’t be sane anymore.”
I thought about the deadbolt imprisoned in the back door. At least he could see … something. It was easy to forget how ruthless the Fae could be when you were friends with them. But to trap a sentient spirit like that, and one of an Utukku, for thousands of years. It was beyond awful.
“Can you leave a door in the wall for it?” I asked.
Calbach nodded. “If you like. Once the pipes are in, I can shift it to another part of the wall.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
Calbach rubbed his hands together. “Well, would you like to see what I’ve done with the apartment? Not nearly as exciting as a veil mirror, though.”
I laughed at that. “Yes, please. This seems like a perfect time for an open house.”
Foster and Aideen exchanged a meaningful glance before snapping into their smaller forms and drifting down the stairs. I figured they wanted to talk about that coffin and what had been inside. For that matter, I wanted to as well, but I also really wanted to see what Calbach had been up to.
I’d never rented an apartment sight unseen, so basically giving the Fae a license to do whatever he wanted to do still felt like I’d had an episode of madness. Which, I supposed in some ways, I had.
“So the good news is I was right about that hollow in the back wall. Looks like they’d planned on putting an elevator in at some point and then scrapped the plans. Might be because the sigils in the foundation chased them off.”
“Anything we should be worried about?” I asked.
“Not so much. Similar to what the cu siths dug up in their lair. Mostly benevolent spells and sigils and the like.”
Nixie raised an eyebrow. “Mostly.”
“A few I wasn’t familiar with, but it didn’t react to anything I tested for. If you have concerns, I am sure Ward could help.” With that, Calbach smiled, and it lifted his braided beard and mustache. He reached out to a door that hadn’t been there two weeks before and opened it onto my new home.
“It’s a bit tight, you know, but you’re pretty scrawny. Figure you’ll fit just fine.”
I grinned at the burly Fae as he turned sideways to fit through the standard-size doorway, but I froze when he turned the light on. It was certainly smaller than my old apartment, but Calbach had turned the dead space into a bedroom fit for Fae royalty.
Crown molding formed from brass lined the ceiling. The wall just to my right was repurposed into a floor to ceiling chest of drawers, for lack of a better term. It wasn’t entirely drawers, with a few open spaces between the studs to install a television or knickknacks or some books of my own. But the dark wood and metal felt right, as if it had always been there.
The opposite wall held an ornate bedframe that looked as if it had been hammered and sculpted from old railroad ties. It made me quite happy my old mattress was history.
Calbach gestured around the space. “So it’s just the one room and the attached bathroom, but I think it’s rather cozy myself. Plus, you have the library as a kind of great room, yes? Anything you’d like to change?”
“Absolutely not,” I said. “This is amazing, Calbach. You have to let me pay you for this. No favors, no debt, just an even exchange.”
“You killed the Mad King, Damian. For that, a great many in Faerie will be in your debt for years to come. Assuming Nixie doesn’t go mad and start a new war, of course.”
“Ha!” Nixie cackled and slapped Calbach on the shoulder. “Any iron we need to avoid?”
“Just what’s in my beard, lass. And I expect Foster and Aideen know to avoid that.” Calbach frowned and looked away. “Not so much the cu siths, though. I can tell you they’re resistant to iron given how much Bubbles licked me.”
“They’re basically goats.”
Calbach released a bellowing laugh. “That they are. That they are. Take a look at the bathroom while we’re here.”
I stuck my head in and tried to understand what I was looking at. A hammered copper tub stretched from one end of the small room to the other and easily had enough space for two people.
“Oh, Calbach,” Nixie said. “You have excellent taste.”
The small sink looked like something straight out of the Royal Courts in Faerie and I couldn’t have imagined a less appropriate style than the columnar facades and grandiose faucets. “It looks like it should be in a room twice this size.”
“Eh,” Nixie started. “More like ten times this size, but I love it.”
“Now this I didn’t make, but it was a present from Foster and Aideen.” Calbach held out a box.
I frowned as I read the outside. “Whirlpool bathtub converter?” I looked up at Calbach. “Oh no.”
Nixie burst into laughter. She’d heard the stories about Rivercene. And I had a sinking suspicion there were going to be many more to come.
CHAPTER FOUR
I caught a shadow in the mirror before I turned the light out. And for a moment, I could have sworn something was looking back at me. But I blinked, and it was gone. Saint Charles was full of old ghosts, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if Calbach’s work had woken up another one.
Nixie and I made our way to the stairs, Nugget finally comfortable enough to follow us on the ground instead of riding on Nixie’s shoulder. Although he did get distracted by the small trail of dry dog food the cu siths had sprayed across the floor.
“Is it okay for him to eat that?” I asked as the peacock horked down a cluster of nuggets before stealing some of the cu siths’ water.
Bubbles chuffed at Nugget from her post at the entrance to the lair, but she didn’t seem to mind.
“He ate half your chimichanga two days ago and survived. I’m sure he’s fine.”
“With that habanero sauce too.” It wasn’t the first magical animal I’d met who could survive food their mortal brethren couldn’t. I’d seen Bubbles take down a box of chocolate, and after a brief panic attack, Aideen assured me the cu siths could likely eat a car and remain healthy. That had been both reassuring, and a bit disturbing.
Nugget strode after us, hopping onto Bubbles’s head before pausing and settling in. Bubbles froze, her eyes rolling up to try to look at the bird perched between her ears.
Nixie let out a stuttering laugh. “That’s adorable.”
“Nixie?” Frank called from the front of the store.
She pushed through the saloon-style doors. “Hi, Frank.”
“Alexandra came by earlier with … umm. I forget her name. One of the witches who fought with you when Lewena came. But I wanted to be sure you knew she wasn’t the only one. It seems like a lot of people know you’re here now.”
Nixie sighed. “Sorry, Frank. I’ll ask them not to come by. Though if Alexandra is escorting them, she believes their visit should not wait. Those who are unescorted should know not to seek an audience here.”
“No, no,” Frank said, glancing between Nixie and me. “I had another idea. Aideen told me a story that it’s rude for Fae to visit a shop for reasons other than commerce without making a purchase or leaving a gift.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “That sounds formal.”
“Well, maybe it should be,” Frank said. “If they’re going to keep coming to visit, yo
u could require them to buy something from the shop. Out of respect, of course.”
Nixie blinked at that. “I … suppose …” Her expression softened. “It was once custom to bring a gift to an audience with the queen. In a way, supporting my prince would be a gift.”
I groaned. “Is this going to get me more hated by Lewena’s old supporters?”
“Maybe.” Nixie’s lips turned up in a wholly inappropriate smile. “It has been a rather slow week, hasn’t it? And it could give me an excuse to stay a little longer.”
“You can help me unpack.”
Nixie scoffed. “No.”
Frank gave us a nervous smile. “Do you two need a minute? I know moving can be stressful and all.”
Nixie gave a shake of her head. “Not at all. I will inform Alexandra I am accepting more audiences. May I make use of your reading nook, Damian? While you’re unpacking?”
“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?”
She grinned. “Probably not as much as saying no.”
“Alright, let’s try it. But if we end up with any kind of Fae nonsense …” I trailed off, thinking about those words. “Never mind. Let’s just not burn the place down, yes?”
“Has Samir come by?” Nixie asked.
Frank looked around as if my favorite mechanic might suddenly spring from the walls. “No. Haven’t seen him.”
“Let me see if he texted or anything.” I reached for my phone, but it wasn’t there. There was little doubt where it was, still sitting on the stack of boxes at the apartment. I could see it as clearly as if I was standing next to it. “Damn. I left my phone. I’ll be back in a—”
But I didn’t finish the sentence. The light of the room vanished, and darkness took me.
CHAPTER FIVE
For a moment, I thought I’d blacked out. My vision had grayed, and then there was nothing. But before memories of my time inside the colossus could trigger a full-blown panic, another world unfurled around me. Black as pitch and dotted with golden light.
“The Abyss?” I whispered, my words echoing out with a strange cadence I’d never heard before.
It was only then I noticed another golden glow. One coming from my skin and concentrating in my fingertips. I blinked, trying to clear my eyes as if it was an illusion, golden motes drifting down to cling to my body.
I’d seen it before. I’d seen it when I traveled with Gaia. But this hadn’t been intentional. One moment I’d been in Death’s Door, and then I’d focused on my phone. Something pulled at me, and I stepped toward it.
The path solidified beneath my feet, and golden stones like the streets of Saint Charles itself stretched out before me. This was Gaia’s power, but I didn’t fully understand it. I’d walked the Abyss with her often enough to trust it to a small degree.
Worst came to worst, assuming I didn’t die in the process, I could always step back out of the Abyss. That I knew how to do. I could still imagine grabbing her hand and returning to my own realm. For now, I concentrated on the path and the gentle pull in my chest.
I walked the Abyss. It didn’t take long before I realized I wasn’t alone in that place. Monstrous shadows lurked around every bend in the path, creatures and forms I didn’t recognize and couldn’t make out, as if they were perpetually out of focus.
There were other things in the distance, other paths through the darkness that wove together like a tangled mass of cable. But if the path I walked across now was a single thread of time, a light between realms, what were the others? Some glowed gold, but others glowed with shadows and pale greens and brilliant blues muted only by impossible distance.
After what felt like an hour of walking, that all changed. A shadow reached the path. I focused on it, and the tentacle of a Leviathan resolved into a massive rubbery gray tower. In a flash, the entire creature came into sharp focus and moved faster than anything I’d ever seen in the Abyss.
More of the creature’s arms rose into the air as its eyes swiveled down to focus on me, as if it could see straight through me. Gaia had once told me everything I perceived in the Abyss wasn’t the reality of it, and I had about ten seconds to realize that Leviathan had every intention of ending me.
An arm the width of a building crashed into the path, but I didn’t feel any vibrations, no movement as the beast flailed against the golden light. But it was solid enough when it moved and slammed into me, pushing me back a good ten feet before it reeled away.
Instinct took over as I lit a soulsword and froze in shock when the blade lashed out like a sparkler from hell, searing through the Leviathan and severing its arm with almost no effort. The blade snapped out of existence as I shook off the surprise and sprinted forward. The Leviathan lost contact with the path, and time slowed once more.
I spared a glance back as I passed, seeing the slow-motion recoil of the injured Eldritch thing. My steps didn’t slow as the Abyss started to brighten, and I suddenly slammed into a very real wall inside a somewhat dim apartment.
I stared at the dent I’d left in the wall and muttered. “So much for that security deposit.”
The movers still hadn’t arrived, so my phone was exactly where I’d left it, perched on top of a stack of boxes. It vibrated as I reached for it. The number for the shop displayed on the screen and I raised it to my ear.
“I’m good.”
“What the hell happened?” Frank asked. “Where are you?”
“Back at my apartment. I’m not entirely sure what happened. Something with Gaia’s power, but it wasn’t anything I did on purpose.”
“He’s okay,” I heard Frank say to whoever else was there. “Do you want me to pick you up?”
“No, no, I’m fine. Look, can you put Nixie on?”
A few scrapes and scratches sounded over the phone before Nixie answered with a hurried question. “Damian. What happened?”
“I was serious when I told Frank I didn’t know. I stepped into the Abyss and came out at the apartment.” She didn’t need to hear the rest. Not right then. Not when I didn’t know who else might be listening. “How long have I been gone?”
“Maybe a minute? It was Frank’s idea to call you, but I didn’t expect it to work. You should probably give him a raise.”
I laughed and bowed my head. A minute. One minute when it felt like I’d been gone over an hour? Time was different in the Abyss, but I’d never been so sharply aware of it as that. “Look, I’m going to try something. If I’m not back in a half hour, come find me.”
“Find you where?”
“Good question.”
“Damian.”
I smiled at the irritation in her tone. “Sorry. I want to see if stepping into the Abyss from somewhere else has the same effect.”
A door chimed in the background and I heard more voices. “Alexandra’s here. Oh my god, Frank’s already giving them a spiel about buying something for an audience like he’s rehearsed it for ten years.” Nixie’s voice trailed off. “Damian, I have to go. Will you please be careful?”
“I will. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
She disconnected, and I made a deliberate point to slide the phone into my pocket.
“Right then. We go out the door, take the stairs, and walk to the front of the complex. Then I find out if I’m making a terrible mistake.” I was halfway down the stairs before realizing just how much I was talking to myself.
I walked through the neighborhood in silence, trying to recall what else I might have done that could have triggered a trip into the Abyss. But there wasn’t anything, and that bothered me the most. I stood by the sign at the entrance to the subdivision and focused on Death’s Door.
Maybe I could trigger it just by thinking hard enough, but nothing happened. I waited for a good fifteen minutes, trying to think of the reading nook in as much detail as I could. The books I’d left on the table, the runes of the ghost circle, the hole where the hidden chest was stashed when Zola didn’t have it, the scratches on the leather from the claws of
the cu siths.
Nothing. Nothing happened.
I took a deep breath and curled my fingers, remembering the feeling of Gaia’s severed hand coming to life in my own, and the world vanished into darkness.
Another step forward, and I felt the pull I’d expected. But this was no hour-long journey. This was one step in, one step out, and I was back at Death’s Door. In the time the golden lights of the Abyss had come into focus, I’d already returned home.
“Where’d you come from?”
I glanced to the right to find Calbach with one eyebrow raised.
“My old apartment.” I checked my phone. No time had passed since I left the apartment complex. So the transition was as fast as it seemed. “Experimenting with Gaia’s gift.”
“Sounds like a good way to get yourself killed.”
I blew out a laugh. “You aren’t wrong about that. It’d be nice if she left an instruction manual.”
“Why don’t you ask her?”
I blinked at the iron-touched Fae. “That’s … not a bad idea.”
Calbach grinned and turned back to the plastic pipes he was threading through the wall.
“Plastic, huh?”
He nodded. “Cheaper, easier to repair, and no one wants to steal plastic pipes. I found some old cast-iron pipes in the basement, but I assumed you didn’t want to poison Foster and Aideen.”
“What? Seriously? Do we need to replace them?”
“No, no, I didn’t mean to worry you. They’ve been decommissioned for decades, I’d say. Water here is as clean as it gets around commoners.”
“Oh, good.”
Calbach eyed me. “You mean that, don’t you? You care about the well-being of those Fae as if they were your own blood. And I do not say that lightly. I’ve seen what you did for the vampire, your sister.”
I looked toward the stairs as if I could see Foster and Aideen. “They are. And I do.”
“Maybe there’s some hope left for our realms after all. Between you and the water witch, I suspect times will be interesting for a while.”
“That’s … a worrying way of putting it.”
